2011: Reports of good conditions in the Couloir Whymper made us take off from Belgium on a Friday afternoon. Approach to the Refuge du Couvercle (which was still closed) on Saturday. During our climb of the Couloir Whymper on Sunday we ended up to far to the right in the South Face of the Grande Rocheuse. Without our summit we rappelled 12 rope lengths back to the bergschrund. After missing the latest train to Chamonix at the Montenvers, we finally arrived at our car at 7 o'clock in the evening. Then back to Belgium where we arrived at 6 o'clock in the morning, ready for another week at work :s

2013: Our second attempt was more balanced than the first. After a small week and 2 climbs in Chamonix, we hiked quickly to the the Refuge du Couvercle (open this time). Start at 1 o'clock, summit at 7 o'clock. No trace in the couloir, perfect conditions in the upper part but no views on the summit :( Downclimbed upper third and finished with 10 rappels. A 60m double rope is absolutely recommended. Some belays are from minor quality...

Grande course! Good snow conditions and firm physical condition make the difference!

Up by the South Buttress of Grand Rocheuse which we eventually left because of difficult rock for the upper Whymper Couloir. Took too long, and bivouaced on the way down the Moine Ridge, which we finished in the morning.

Impressive climb. 15h non stop. We departed at midnight from "Couvercle" hut. 2hours later we were at the start of the Whymper corridor and at 6:13 am in the summit. Down with 12+ rappels and then hard way back to hut in soft snow. After a bite we proceeded to "Mer de Glace" and then finally to the train (Montenvers)which we picked sharp at 3pm. Then celebration & beers in Chamonix with my friend Nico who guided me up.

When Gaston Rebuffat said «Avant la Verte on est alpiniste, à la Verte on devient montagnard... » (not easy to translate but something like "before the Verte we are alpinists, in the Verte we become mountaineers..." ; I think I understand now why he said so... the long corridor, the sharp final ridge, speedy & multiple rappels and the mountain itself which is probably the sense of the quote: The Verte brings the climber to a higher stage, beyond Alps ... (no rock though) ...

All in all a superb and thrilling climb !

P.s. in the middle of the corridor I lost one of my ice axes (suffering cold fingers all the time) ... (seems I did not kill anybody, uff) ... that made it even more scary ...

Had to wait a few days for the snow conditions to improve but the conditions ended up being pretty good. Eventually climbed (solo) from Couvercle Hut to the summit of Grand Rocheuse in 4,5 hrs. From there I had the most beautiful view over the summit of Aiguille Verte which I half an hour later reached by the knife-edge ridge with the rising sun hitting it at the same time. What an experience!!

Climbed with Legañoso and Bolo. Starting up at 00:00 hrs, from Grand Montets Cable Car upper station and spending 14 hours to reach the Montenvers railway station. We did 15 rapells to descend by the Grand Rocheuse Spur. Perfect conditions and great weather

We left the hut at 0030 and were at the base of the couloir in two hours. Four and a half hours later we were at the summit in the morning sun. The descent involved 14 rappels down the couloir itself and we found our self at the bottom of the couloir at 1200hrs. The walk back to the hut was difficult in deep snow which had been previously frozen.

The couloir was in great condition, with Neve snow and patches of ice. We moved together for most of the way.

How silly that we went along the foot of the Northface at avalanche grade 4!! .... So instead of climbing the Couloir Couturier and going down through the Whymper Couloir (planned partly with ski), we looked at Aiguille d'Argentière - and finally decided to go to the end of the glacier d'Argentiere and to try our luck overthere ....

The third day, I finally gave it up to jump about around in the fog and snowstorm although Ulli and Günter still continued trying to become killed by avalanches, icefall and the coldness ;o). So I went down alone by ski to Argentière - and got nearly killed as well by almost having fallen in a big crevasse which I did not saw because of the fog :o( .... Having reached Argentière finally, I recognized that the battery of my handy was totally empty (because of the extreme coldness) .... so I would probably not have gotten any help if I had fallen into that crevasse :o(, although I still had a very loud pea-whistle with me... :o).